This post is way too long in coming, especially because I was disappointed to find no other like it when I googled those keywords earlier this year.

Some starting points: (hopefully I’ll be able to add more)

http://detroitwiki.org/Data_about_Detroit

http://datadrivendetroit.org/ (501c3, I’m interning there this semester)

He handed out copies of the DVD and the work is under a Creative Commons license, so I’ve put up a copy online as a torrent.

You’ll need a torrent client to download it; I’d recommend Transmission for Mac or uTorrent for Windows. I’m looking for a place to upload it for streaming online.

So if you add: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090719/SUB01/907189993

The system will write:
THIS JUST IN: Land bank authority getting off the ground. Crain’s Detroit. 19 July 2009.

Or something similar. It will not make you type this:

<ref>R. Smith, "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 46 (April 1978): 44-6.</ref>

Like some other systems we might name.

Would you like a system that does that, and a lot else? Paypal a 1-year commitment of $45,000 to matthew.hampel@gmail.com.

Dumbbell tenements from a great Columbia University interactive page on apartment houses

Detroit Historic District Commission has a page about each historic building, including dates significance was recognized. (can I get these in a shapefile?)

Readings from The Power of Place.

You can transfer air rights.

Here are the basic features I’m looking for:

• We can easily create an application with custom fields (Preferably with chunking. For example: personal information on one page, personal statement on the next, etc.)
• Applicants create an account and fill out the fields online
• Applicants can stop halfway through and finish the application later
• Applicants push a button to submit their application
• File uploads allowed
• We can get the data out

• Nice but not necessary: Some hidden fields for processing (like accepted/rejected/pending)

Happily, I there’s one page that lists all of them, so I wrote this short script:

import urllib2
import re
from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup, SoupStrainer
import os
import time

for link in soup:
    link = base_url + link['href'] # build the full path to the PDF
    os.system("wget " + link)
    time.sleep(10) # wait a little while to be courteous

“Similarly, when a policy problem is divided in smaller parts, so that it can be distributed and worked on by collaborative teams, the drive toward openness and innovation begins.” (Wiki Government 33).

That’s a huge claim just sitting in the open. My first quibble is about the adjective collaborative – what does it mean to have a collaborative team? If it means that each team works with the others, how does this create “openness and innovation” instead of barter-style political compromise? (eg. pork barrel politics)

Second, distributing policy problems can lead to strife and division as much as centralized decisions. See, for example, the recent healthcare debate: everyone is “collaborating,” right? Someone still needs to make sense of all the noise.

Which leads to the question — who defines legitimacy and power for the distributed groups?

Openness and innovation are certainly not the necessary results of distributed work. There’s no reason why distributed policymaking will be more open. Even with a legal framework for sharing information, such as Freedom of Information or Open Meetings Acts, individual teams can still choose to go dark and not communicate with others.

Both terms are very vague — what is policy innovation, really? Can it not begin outside of distributed policy?

Having many pieces all over the place also makes it more difficult to see the big picture. In fact, it may be that it makes it harder, as interest group or individual experts stake their territory and claim issues/subtopics.

“Whenever we confront a problem, we have to ask ourselves: How do I parse and distribute the problem? How might we build feedback loops that incorporate more people?” (Harvey Anderson quoted in Noveck, Beth: Wiki Government, p. 32-3)

Yipes! It’s a deadly combination of political science loaded with managerial computer science jargon — parse, distribute, feedback loops. Perfectly intelligible to an insider, but not necessarily the best way to communicate a problem-solving method.

Writing in the Real World: Best Practices of Journalism with Susan Rosegrant.

This intensive writing course is designed to give students a solid grounding in the tools and principles of journalism. Students will complete a variety of reporting assignments, ranging from short news pieces to in-depth articles to opinion pieces. Throughout, the emphasis will be on research- and interview-based writing that adheres to the journalistic principles of brevity, clarity, and objectivity. The course will also examine ethical issues, including the responsibilities inherent in being a rigorous reporter and writer.

Political Struggles in Mexico: Seminar and Field Study with Ian Robinson. Neoliberal transformations and popular responses to the same, including a field study in Chiapas or Oaxaca.

History of Computers and the Internet with Paul Edwards. Development, use, and impact of computers from the ancient world to the present.

3D Studio Course Exploring the Art of Burning Man with Jason Wright.

Students will learn accessible methods of forming materials through a series of projects, culminating in the design and material development of a work of public art that responds to the principles and challenges of the annual arts festival known as Burning Man. This class will explore the following concepts and challenges: building sustainable communities, radical free expression, self-reliance, art as a public and non-commercial activity, and the concept of a gift economy.

Found Instruments-Building, Design and Performance with Mike Gould.

Found instruments are everyday objects that are utilized or repurposed as musical instruments. This class identifies not only these everyday objects with which to perform and reconstruct, but also seeks hybrid instruments that combine found objects with instruments of old. The semester will commence with an overview of instrument categories, tunings, and some of the guiding physics behind instruments. This includes important composers and artists from the early 20th century to current artists and emerging technologies (such as using the iPhone as an instrument). The class goes as a group (and individually) to seek materials for designing and building instruments. The class also covers the basics of musicianship, composition, form, improvisation and playing as an ensemble.

Quantitatively Speaking with David Burkam

We begin with a discussion of what is typically meant by “quantitative reasoning,” and then focus on how such reasoning is implemented (sometimes appropriately, sometimes not). One of the main goals of the course is to learn “basic survival skills” for today’s number-intensive world. Using Best’s Damned Lies and Statistics and Huff’s How To Lie With Statistics, we learn how to critique conclusions drawn from a survey, a graph, or a table of numbers. We explore how statistics can reveal underlying linguistic patterns in prose and poetry, explore some of the vast research literature on gender and race differences (including gender differences in attitudes toward love), and read books like Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man and Levitt & Dubner’s Freakonomics.

Pills, Politics and the Public Good and Research Seminar on Ethics, Politics, and the Pharmaceutical Industry with Hank Greenspan

Major topics include: A perceived “ethics problem” within the pharmaceutical industry, critiques of industry’s relationship with the FDA, post-Vioxx concerns about drug safety, statutes shielding drug companies from civil liability (lawsuits), direct-to consumer advertising, direct-to-physician advertising (e.g., “drug reps,” etc.), industry-funded research and medical journals, the role of consumer and patient advocacy as responses to perceived problems.

Food, Land, and Society with Catherine Badgley

The course is an introduction to the modern food system at a time when many of its major trends are in flux. Course topics include the ecology of agricultural ecosystems, the cultural and environmental history of food production, and the current ecological and economic crises in agriculture, especially as they affect native species and ecosystems, climate change, rural communities, and the interconnections between food and agriculture in rich countries and rural livelihoods in the global south. The course integrates scientific, economic, and historical dimensions of modern food production, consumption, and food policies.